Cozying up with fall and appreciating family

As the fall weather rolls in, it’s time to settle in and get nice and cozy. With each day, more leaves fall, Halloween grows closer, and I grow more frustrated with my dim selection of fall and winter sweaters. Not only that, but people start to gather with friends and family to enjoy the holiday cheer. 

 

With Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas inching closer each day, my thoughts have turned more and more to family and those I care about. 

 

Since moving in August, I have yet to experience the gut wrenching of homesickness. I think it’s because I’m used to leaving in the fall for school and not seeing my family again until the holidays. But now here come the holidays, and with it, the warm and fuzzy feeling of loving and wanting to be with family. 

 

Jack’s family has been visiting Denver the last couple of weekends, and it’s been nice. I’ve been able to be there as he has been able to reconnect with distant relatives and catch up with those in his family. And although they aren’t technically my family, everyone has opened their arms to me and welcomed me as a member, which I very much appreciate. Sometimes when your family can’t be there with you, you realize there are other people in your life who care about you as family. 

 

Which makes me miss my best friend, who still lives in Minneapolis. She was always there for me – for four years, she was always just a few steps down the hall. Now, she’s hours and miles away and that part of my family feels far as well. 

 

So I’m still learning to be apart from my family. I may have booked flights for Thanksgiving, middle of December, and Christmas to come home and visit my family though. I am quite excited to spend time with them and really appreciate the time together. Especially when big, life-changing things make me pause and take stock. My cousin and his wife just had their first baby, the first child born of my generation, making my grandma a great-grandma! In sad news though, my grandma also had a close friend from college die recently. 

 

Things happen in our lives that change it every day. We are affected by so many things, in little or big ways. My moving to Denver is big, my cousin having a baby is small, but each means so much to me. 

 

This ramble is due to me curling up on the couch with a warm pumpkin latte, watching cheesy movies and rom-coms and getting in my feels. I love my family, my friends, and everyone in my life. Well, obviously there are people I do not love as much as others, but they are still part of my life that makes it so unique and fun. 

 

My Determination: “How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state? ”

― Plato